India and Windies played the second T20I of the three-match series in Lucknow at the Ekana Stadium which was also renamed after India’s former Prime Minister Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The hosts had a field day in the middle as they thumped the opposition by a whopping 72 runs and also sealed the series. Meanwhile, before the game, the roads leading to the stadium were messed up due to heavy traffic and even the team bus of both the sides reached the venue behind the schedule.

Moreover, the spectators who were all excited to watch the action were left disappointed with the arrangements as it took a lot of time for them to reach, To make things worse, the parking lot was 5 km away from the stadium which led to them expressing their anger. It was the first international game in Lucknow’s new stadium and the officials weren’t expecting so much crowd being the festive season it seems.

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Despite our best efforts, the vehicles carrying the two teams got stuck in the traffic for some time. However, we managed to pulled them out and take them to the stadium,” SSP Kalanidhi Naithani was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

Fans had no such luxury

However, the fans had no such luxury and were stuck in a traffic jam. Siddharth Singh Raghuvanshi, an IT consultant was livid over the arrangements as it took over an hour to cross the Shaheed Path. “The traffic was crawling,” he said, adding “I missed five overs of the game, thanks to the traffic mismanagement and parking lot 5 km away,” he added.

Rahil Khan, a medical student, said routes leading towards the stadium were very much confusing and the police barricades led to a very slow vehicular movement. “I missed about eight overs as I got confused about the route. There were barricades everywhere. Moreover, some policemen were misbehaving with fans,” he added.

To add to the agony of the enthusiasts, there was no police or traffic official to manage the traffic and they had to miss the first half of the first innings.